Try this library: http://jsbase64.codeplex.com/releases/view/89265. It is fast and seems to be reliable; it actually has a test suite. I tested it in IE8 mode using the HTML below and it worked well. I also created a JSBin (JSBin doesn't support IE8) with the library inlined here: http://jsbin.com/faxawa/1/edit?js,console.
There is also a long StackOverflow thread on various base64 libraries that is worth looking at here: Base64 encoding and decoding in client-side Javascript.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>JS Bin</title>
</head>
<body>
<script>
/* B64 code from here: http://jsbase64.codeplex.com/releases/view/89265 */
/*
Copyright Vassilis Petroulias [DRDigit]
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
*/
var B64 = {
alphabet: 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=',
lookup: null,
ie: /MSIE /.test(navigator.userAgent),
ieo: /MSIE [67]/.test(navigator.userAgent),
encode: function (s) {
var buffer = B64.toUtf8(s),
position = -1,
len = buffer.length,
nan0, nan1, nan2, enc = [, , , ];
if (B64.ie) {
var result = [];
while (++position < len) {
nan0 = buffer[position];
nan1 = buffer[++position];
enc[0] = nan0 >> 2;
enc[1] = ((nan0 & 3) << 4) | (nan1 >> 4);
if (isNaN(nan1))
enc[2] = enc[3] = 64;
else {
nan2 = buffer[++position];
enc[2] = ((nan1 & 15) << 2) | (nan2 >> 6);
enc[3] = (isNaN(nan2)) ? 64 : nan2 & 63;
}
result.push(B64.alphabet.charAt(enc[0]), B64.alphabet.charAt(enc[1]), B64.alphabet.charAt(enc[2]), B64.alphabet.charAt(enc[3]));
}
return result.join('');
} else {
var result = '';
while (++position < len) {
nan0 = buffer[position];
nan1 = buffer[++position];
enc[0] = nan0 >> 2;
enc[1] = ((nan0 & 3) << 4) | (nan1 >> 4);
if (isNaN(nan1))
enc[2] = enc[3] = 64;
else {
nan2 = buffer[++position];
enc[2] = ((nan1 & 15) << 2) | (nan2 >> 6);
enc[3] = (isNaN(nan2)) ? 64 : nan2 & 63;
}
result += B64.alphabet[enc[0]] + B64.alphabet[enc[1]] + B64.alphabet[enc[2]] + B64.alphabet[enc[3]];
}
return result;
}
},
decode: function (s) {
if (s.length % 4)
throw new Error("InvalidCharacterError: 'B64.decode' failed: The string to be decoded is not correctly encoded.");
var buffer = B64.fromUtf8(s),
position = 0,
len = buffer.length;
if (B64.ieo) {
var result = [];
while (position < len) {
if (buffer[position] < 128)
result.push(String.fromCharCode(buffer[position++]));
else if (buffer[position] > 191 && buffer[position] < 224)
result.push(String.fromCharCode(((buffer[position++] & 31) << 6) | (buffer[position++] & 63)));
else
result.push(String.fromCharCode(((buffer[position++] & 15) << 12) | ((buffer[position++] & 63) << 6) | (buffer[position++] & 63)));
}
return result.join('');
} else {
var result = '';
while (position < len) {
if (buffer[position] < 128)
result += String.fromCharCode(buffer[position++]);
else if (buffer[position] > 191 && buffer[position] < 224)
result += String.fromCharCode(((buffer[position++] & 31) << 6) | (buffer[position++] & 63));
else
result += String.fromCharCode(((buffer[position++] & 15) << 12) | ((buffer[position++] & 63) << 6) | (buffer[position++] & 63));
}
return result;
}
},
toUtf8: function (s) {
var position = -1,
len = s.length,
chr, buffer = [];
if (/^[\x00-\x7f]*$/.test(s)) while (++position < len)
buffer.push(s.charCodeAt(position));
else while (++position < len) {
chr = s.charCodeAt(position);
if (chr < 128)
buffer.push(chr);
else if (chr < 2048)
buffer.push((chr >> 6) | 192, (chr & 63) | 128);
else
buffer.push((chr >> 12) | 224, ((chr >> 6) & 63) | 128, (chr & 63) | 128);
}
return buffer;
},
fromUtf8: function (s) {
var position = -1,
len, buffer = [],
enc = [, , , ];
if (!B64.lookup) {
len = B64.alphabet.length;
B64.lookup = {};
while (++position < len)
B64.lookup[B64.alphabet.charAt(position)] = position;
position = -1;
}
len = s.length;
while (++position < len) {
enc[0] = B64.lookup[s.charAt(position)];
enc[1] = B64.lookup[s.charAt(++position)];
buffer.push((enc[0] << 2) | (enc[1] >> 4));
enc[2] = B64.lookup[s.charAt(++position)];
if (enc[2] == 64)
break;
buffer.push(((enc[1] & 15) << 4) | (enc[2] >> 2));
enc[3] = B64.lookup[s.charAt(++position)];
if (enc[3] == 64)
break;
buffer.push(((enc[2] & 3) << 6) | enc[3]);
}
return buffer;
}
};
var encoded = 'eyJpZHMiOlsiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiMTEiLCIiLCIxMSIsIiIsIiJdLCJkdXJhdGlvbnMiOlsiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiNyIsIiIsIjUiLCIiLCIiXSwic2xvdE51bWJlcnMiOlsiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiMjMiLCIiLCIzMSIsIiIsIiJdLCJwb3NpdGlvbnMiOlsiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiIiwiNyIsIiIsIjE1IiwiIiwiIl19';
var decodedNative = (typeof atob === 'function' ? atob(encoded) : undefined);
var decodedLibrary = B64.decode(encoded);
console.log(decodedNative);
console.log(decodedLibrary);
console.log('Match: ' + (decodedLibrary === decodedNative));
</script>
</body>
</html>
